This year, we purchased the conference meal plan. We have done meals "on our own" at previous conferences. There are pros and cons to both ways. Finding your own meals can be economical if you can find a local grocery, or it can be a bit pricey finding local restaurants with no first-hand knowledge of the area. It can also take more time than you'd like, as the time allotted for meals between sessions is limited. With so many workshops, things need to begin and end on time, and they usually do. Finding a restaurant, being seated and served, and getting back on time for your next workshop can be stressful and make a tight schedule even tighter.
This year, we decided to go with the meal plan. The pros are convenience, not having to find restaurants, and you know exactly what to budget for meals. The meal plan provides Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch, and Sunday lunch. This gives you a chance to check out the local quisine Saturday evening after the sessions are finished and you have time to enjoy your meal or take a walk and enjoy the local sights. This year, our local sight is the baseball stadium right across the street from the Marriott:
The cons to the meal plan are that you get whatever they offer, so there's really no choice. They do offer a gluten-free option (again, no choice). You are also relying on the quiality of the food at the convention center. At Disney, the food was excellent. At Washington, it was pretty good, too. Here, we've found it ok, but not great. However, it's been very quick, easy to get, plenty of seating, and Marriott employees bus your tables and will serve you drinks once you arrive at your table from the buffet. Friday's dinner was chicken, rice, and beans with a caramel cake dessert. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, cereal, and fruit. Lunch was pasta, alfredo sauce, broccoli, and bread sticks. Nothing special, but super convenient. We figure the price of the meal plan would approximate to what we'd spend on our own, so it's really up to you how you want to go. If you're a foodie, on-your-own is definitely the way to go :)
As always, we attended the dance party Friday evening. This year, they had a DJ from a local Radio Disney station, and they had everyone up and dancing and having a great time. We love, love, love the dance and ran into a few of our Rochester friends at the bars (one for drinks, one for desserts. Lots of chocolate goodies... yummy!). We danced a bit and enjoyed seeing hundreds of happy faces. We didn't stay 'til the close of the dance, since we'd been up since 4:00 a.m. We slept very well!
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